How to Write a Percy Jackson Fanfiction
by cherrytreehp2012
Summary: My advice for all the newbies out there who have the inspiration and the idea but don't know where to begin. What not to do in fanfiction, in depth character studies, Mary Sues, cliches, ordering, OCs, grammar and spelling and a whole lot of puns and sarcasm. A safe haven, shall we say, for the new and inexperienced writers who want to learn.
1. A prologue of sorts and glossary

**Chapter One: A Prologue of Sorts**

*awkward me is awkward* Hi, demigods. Before we begin, I want to let you know that I am not a professional writer, or indeed an expert on all things fanfiction. In terms of PJO/HoO, I have three fanfictions (technically four but the last is a song list) and two of those are one shots, the last is ridiculously long. My disclaimer being this, I have made multiple of these mistakes in fanfiction and my advice, shall we say, might not be stellar. I do, however, read a lot of fanfiction, ergo I know most of the 'annoying bits'.

Before we begin, I would like to point out there will most definitely be spoilers in this. Like, a LOT of them for every PJO/HoO book. Do not read if you have not yet gotten your hands on everything up to House of Hades.

Another thing you need to know before pressing the "Next" button: The PJO Fangirl Glossary. This is a list of terms you might find in a fanfic's description, which I will probably end up using multiple times in this:

**PJO **– An abbreviation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the first book series in which there are five books all told from Percy's first person POV

**HoO **– An abbreviation of Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan's second book series involving demigods, in which there are four books with the fifth due out this October, all told from alternating third person POV

**TLT **– Stands for The Lightning Thief, the first book in PJO

**TSoM – **Stands for The Sea of Monsters, the second book in PJO

**TTC – **Stands for The Titan's Curse, the third book in PJO

**TBotL **– Stands for The Battle of the Labyrinth, the fourth book in PJO

**TDF **– Stands for The Demigod Files, an 'extra' book set in the time frame of PJO, which includes three short stories and interviews with the characters

**TLO **– Stands for The Last Olympian, the fifth and final book in PJO

**TLH **– Stands for The Lost Hero, marking the beginning of HoO

**TDD **– Stands for The Demigod Diaries, similar to TDF

**(T)SoN **– Stands for The Son of Neptune, the second book in HoO

**(T)MoA** – Stands for The Mark of Athena, the third book in HoO

**(T)HoO **– Stands for The House of Hades, the fourth and most recent book in HoO

**(T)BoO **– Stands for The Blood of Olympus, the fifth and final book in HoO which is going to be released on the 7th October 2014

**POV **– Stands for Point of View, which means who is telling the story, whose thoughts are we reading?

**First person **– A first person POV means that you are pretending to be the character, for example: I walked into the kitchen

**Second person **– A less common POV where the writer pretends it is the readers experiencing this, such as: You walked into the kitchen

**Third Person **– A POV where the author is 'telling' the story, like they're watching it happen: She/he walked into the kitchen

**Flames **– Surprising, it's nothing to do with Leo Valdez. A flame is a negative, unhelpful review which goes something like "your story is terrible" without offering any way to improve

**AU **– Stands for Alternate universe, which sets the characters in a completely different world to the books, for example a High School AU or Office AU etc. Not to be confused with AR (Alternate reality), where a specific event is changed rather than the world. However, most ARs are marked as AU

**OOC **– Stands for out of character or out of canon, which means the character does not act like they do in the books. An example of OOC would be if Annabeth was to start parading around Camp Half Blood in stiletto heels

**! – **Seeing an exclamation mark in-between what's usually an adjective, job or personality and a character name means that the character will be OOC **or** it will focus on an unusual aspect of the character's personality, such as Punk!Percy, Happy!Nico, Drunk!Piper etc.

**OC **– Stands for original character, which is a character the writer has invented and added in to either an AU with characters or into the book world

**Slash **– Means a homosexual pairing, typically when both involved are men. The correct term for 'lesbian' pairing is femslash, but slash is a more common. Another common word for this is Yaoi for the men, yuri for the women.

**Lemons **– Indicates that the fanfiction contains a very strong, graphic sex scene

**Limes **– A more toned down version of a lemon, sex scenes are either not very graphic or just implied

_NB: Fanfictions that contain both lemons and limes can be referred to as __**citrus **_

**Canon **– Something that is the same as the book, or that is not made up. For example, a Percy and Annabeth relationship is canon, Luke Castellan's death is canon etc.

**Ship **– When you like the idea of two or more characters being in a relationship: I ship Jason and Piper, a ship between Hazel and Leo seems weird to me (all examples)

**OTP **- One true pairing, the couple that you ship (want to be together) the most

**brOTP **– People that you ship, but only as friends or bros. For example: Jason and Nico are only my brOTP

**nOTP **– The opposite of OTP, the ship you can't stand

**Beta/Beta reader **– Basically your editor. They read through fanfictions, checking for spelling mistakes, continuity issues, bad characterisation etc.

**Noncon** – Short for non-consensual, in terms of sex. If you see this, it's usually a warning for technical rape

**Disclaimer **– A very important part of any fanfiction. A disclaimer means you recognise the characters and universe of PJO is not yours, to avoid copyright issues. It is very important that this is clearly in your fanfiction at least once

**Drabble **– A very short fanfiction, typically under 500 words

**Fluff** – As the name suggests, a light hearted, happy fanfiction

**m/m, f/f or m/f **– Another way of letting the readers know what type of pairing this is. m/m means two males paired, f/f means two females and m/f means male/female pairing

**Mary Sue **– A perfect character with no flaws, very badly written characters. The male version is Gary Stu

**PWP **– Porn without plot. Means the fanfiction is literally just a scene of erotica 

**Songfic **– A fanfiction including song lyrics

**Vanilla **– A character or fanfiction description that usually means simple. If a lemon is vanilla it means no fancy kinks and so on

**UST **– Unresolved sexual tension

**Crossover **– When two different books/fandoms get combined in one fanfiction, such as Percy Jackson being reaped for the Hunger Games

**THE SHIPS (note that there are many more, but those will probably be marked like Percy/Aphrodite)**

**Percabeth **– Percy and Annabeth

**Percico **– Percy and Nico, sometimes pernico, pico or nicercy

**Perachel **– Percy and Rachel

**Jercy **- Jason and Percy (there's so much UST there it's unreal)

**Perpollo **– Percy and Apollo

**Frazel **– Frank and Hazel

**Lazel **– Leo and Hazel

**Jasper/jiper **– Jason and Piper

**Tratie **– Travis Stoll and Katie Gardener

**Gruniper **– Grover and Juniper

**Leyna **– Leo and Reyna

**Jeyna **– Jason and Reyna

**Lukabeth** – Luke and Annabeth

**Nictavian **– Nico and Octavian

**Thaluke** – Thalia and Luke

**Perluke/Lukercy **– Percy and Luke 

**Thalico **– Thalia and Nico

**Rico (I'm not sure on the ship name) **– Rachel and Nico

**Pertamis **– Percy and Artemis

**Perlia **– Percy and Thalia

**Pothena **– Poseidon and Athena

**Jasico **– Jason and Nico

**Leico/valdangelo/ghostfire **– Leo and Nico

**Leason/valgrace **– Leo and Jason (though the second one could be Leo/Thalia)

**Brason** – Jason and the brick that hit him at the beginning of MOA (my OTP)

**Caleo** – Calypso and Leo

**Perlypso **– Percy and Calypso

**The big threesome** – Jason, Nico and Percy (not Zeus, Hades and Poseidon)

**Tysella** – Typson and Ella (the harpy)

**Perleo **– Percy and Leo

**Reynabeth **– Reyna and Annabeth

**Pipabeth – **Piper and Annabeth

**Pipeyna **– Piper and Reyna

**Chrisse - **Clarisse and Chris

_NB: Most threesome ships are not included because they're easy to figure out_

Feel free to request 'lessons' in the review section :)


	2. What TO do

**Chapter two: How to write a Percy Jackson fanfiction (what TO do)**

* * *

_**The idea**_

* * *

You might be freaking Shakespeare incarnate when it comes to writing, but that doesn't mean anything unless you have a great idea for a story. Due to my insomnia (we get extra creative when we're tired) I tend to come up with my story ideas at night, when I'm lying in bed. That might not be true for everyone, but a lot of the time stories are dreamt up in the most random of places.

My point is, an idea is an idea, no matter how random. Especially the stories that stick with you. Sometimes, for me, you dismiss an idea but it keeps circling around in your head. WRITE IT DOWN. Even if it doesn't work out, it's all good practice. Any 'what if' moment can be made into an awe inspiring fanfiction. You might claim to be awful at coming up with ideas, but literally any passing thought can be made into one.

* * *

_**The planning**_

* * *

This is actually a stage I like to skip. In some cases like mine, it puts people off and they are better at remembering in their head. Some people just can't work that way, and so here is what I know about how to plan:

You don't need to go from beginning to end, or write out every chapter. If you know the very ending and a random part in the middle, right that down. Plans are meant to be messy!

I suppose it's a good thing to have to refer to, so in that case I would suggest it! It can help to keep your fic in place and make sure the timing of everything is right.

It can also help to establish your genre (as on this website you have to select it when you post the first chapter). If your story starts out as a gladiator AU, planning can help you see where it would be best to introduce romance.

* * *

_**The writing**_

* * *

Look, I cannot teach you how to write. There is no way for anyone to do that. What I can do, however, is give you some tips and tell you that practice is key. In my experience, my first fanfiction was utterly terrible but I got better after a year of writing.

**Tip one**: Keep rereading each chapter for clichés. A big majority of this guide will be about that, so I won't say much here, but just keep it in mind

**Tip two**: Always check how your sentences begin. If you over use the same word, the writing looks plain childish. Compare these two, similar, texts (written very badly I have to admit):

Text one: Annabeth caressed Percy's cheek. Something was wrong, she knew it. After Tartarus, they'd both had their fair share of nightmares. Percy, she believed, had been suffering more in silence.

Text two: She caressed his cheek. She knew something was wrong. She'd had lots of nightmares after Tartarus. She believed he had been suffering more in silence.

See? Text two does not make a lot of sense and the sentences do not flow. You can use 'she' or 'he' (or indeed 'I') at times, but don't use it for every sentence ever, it's annoying to read.

**Tip three: **Know how to apply your style to a situation. Generally, you should be in the middle of long sentences and short, but certain situations can be made more intense by how you write them. Take a romantic, moonlit walk on the beach for example. In that case, you need to tap into your character's emotions. You could make the sentence's rambling and messy if that character is experiencing butterflies, or long and almost over descriptive if the character is in a dreamy mood. Commas are your best friend!

In scenes of danger, you can make your sentences short and jumpy (staccato). Do not fear the green line if you use MS Word! In my opinion – Dragging. Head against the floor. Wrists bang. Can't see. Darkness- is more effective than – He was dragging me, scarping my head against the floor. I couldn't see anything. Then finally, darkness closed on me.

All though the second isn't terrible, a character would not be that relaxed in that situation to form full sentences. You really put the reader in the situation if you go on emotion.

**Tip four: **Always check spelling and grammar. I will have a chapter dedicated to this, but yeah.

**Tip five: **Even if it would make your life easier and more effective in your story, do not go out of character. It's very tempting, I know, but a very big no.

**Tip six: **For the love of Aphrodite, do not centre your text! It's very annoying to read. In the case of letters and prophecies, it is a good idea to signify importance. Otherwise, just DON'T do it.

**Tip seven: **Listen to music whilst you write. It can help to visualise the scene and your character's emotions, as well as keep you relaxed.

**Tip eight: **Watch out for plot holes. It happens to the best of them. For example: Why did it not occur to Harry, Ron or Hermione to carry a gun around with them during the search for the horcruxes? Why did nobody use mortal weapons? It would be so much easier than magic in the situation!

**Tip nine**: Make sure your pacing is correct. Build up to your fight scenes, slow down the story a bit (but don't take aeons to get to the point). Sometimes, suddenness can be good, but not all the time.

**A**nd that concludes my tips for writing. Don't worry, next chapter commences what not to do. I've decided every fifth chapter will be a character study, so review who you want to see first.


	3. The ultimate cliches

**Chapter Three: The ultimate clichés **

Everyone who uses is familiar with these stories. You know why? Because they've been done at least twenty times, usually more! Not only are they unoriginal, but usually poorly written.

* * *

**Chaos stories**

* * *

I would like to actually praise the person who originally did this. Really, it shows wider knowledge than the books and a lot of creativity. And yeah, I know, with the 50,000 stories on Percy Jackson everything's bound to be slightly unoriginal, but Chaos stories are usually THE WORST.

Let me give you a formula for a Chaos story: So Percy gets a brother (older or younger, it doesn't matter) who ends up dating Annabeth, either causing her to leave Percy or cheat on him. Percy is then shunned by his friends because his brother is better, and runs away. Sometimes, Nico and/or Thalia joins him. Percy gets found by Chaos, and one thousand years later he comes back and gets revenge. Usually, he has sex with many random girls for no particular reason, such as Hestia, Thalia, Piper, Calypso, Artemis etc.

No. Just no. Not only is this plot line factually flawed, it's completely OOC.

*le sigh* Chaos, in Greek mythology for those who aren't aware, is basically God with a capitol 'G'. The original primordial gods and goddesses were born from her. Yup, she's Gaia's mum (mom for some of you). Never, not once, is Chaos referred to as a person with speech or any sort of consciousness. Chaos is quite literally CHAOS, a force. Although of course you have creative license, don't stray too far from the 'canon' that is Greek mythology, simply because Rick Riordan keeps his books faithful to the myths and you shouldn't really change that.

Another factual error: Percy would not have this brother. Considering he's the child of the prophecy, and he was found out about when he was 11/12, there's no way a child of Poseidon would (A) exist and (B) exist without anyone knowing about it.

And now the OOC parts of this. First off, and I will address this in my Character Analysis, Percy isn't the running away type. One of his most admirable qualities is his bravery and loyalty. Even if Annabeth were to cheat on him, he would not run away from it and most likely forgive her. After all, have you met their parents? Of course, Percy is also very jealous and territorial, so yeah, hypothetically he might not forgive Annabeth. He would definitely not run away, or join Chaos.

Now for Annabeth. Although loyalty isn't her fatal flaw, it is a quality. Even when Luke went Turbo, she wanted to forgive him and to save him. I quote from HoH "Percy had become a part of her". She would NEVER cheat on Percy, ESPECIALLY not with his sibling. As much as I dislike Annabeth personally, it annoys me when she's turned into a villain.

Now, the gods and campers wouldn't turn against Percy unless you use a spell as an excuse. I mean, come on guys, he's PERCY JACKSON. He literally saved the world. Even moody old Zeus and bitchy Hera would not turn against him.

My final issue with Percy in these is how he usually sleeps around with everything with breasts. Percy isn't that kind of guy, people! He represents the good aspects of Poseidon, and yes, Poseidon did have a dark side. On average, Annabeth has actually made most of the advances. As much as you'd like to think it, Percy is not some kind of sex god.

Basically, don't do it. It's so overdone unless you have a better plot than this. But honestly, I've never read a Chaos fic that I've managed to put up with and liked. There might be a good one out there, but the 'popular' ones I find pretty awful.

* * *

**Truth or dare**

* * *

*Groans* THE MEMORIES ARE COMING BACK. GODS NO. I'M REMEMBERING READING THESE. GET IT OUT. BURN IT!

They're shocking bad on a whole. You have to be an extremely talented comedic writer to pull it off, by that I mean Rick Riordan level.

My unpopular, perhaps, opinion is that truth and dare can be quite fun, but not as a standalone fic. One of my personal favourite uses is a cute, quirky and awkward game in a romance. So yeah, use it if it actually benefits your story for character development or whatever. That's fine. However, being a teenager with a group of friends, I can tell you that confessions of love do NOT come from truth or dare.

Say your character has a crush on another character. Have them LIE! Show that they're guilty about it, embarrassed. However, don't have the two characters run outside and suddenly be all in love. Nico di Angelo is NOT going to admit his 'undying love for Percy Jackson' in a game of truth or dare.

A common theme in these is to make them all M rated and raunchy (Note, I will address M fics on a whole later. Yup. How to write smut.). Guys, if you're using the canon timeline, they're not going to be THAT out there. *awkward me is awkward* At the age of all PJO/HOO characters, there's a lot of things going on with hormones. Yeah, so they probably are a bit 'horny'. However, you tend to pick up kinks as you go? Without getting too cringy, truth or dare fics tend to be much too risqué. I mean, this is a group of VIRGINS including a good amount that are underage. I'm not doubting that they would realistically be dared to strip, run round camp naked, lick whipped cream off someone, make out with someone etc., but in character they wouldn't agree to this. Except maybe Drew Tanaka, and even that's pushing it.

And then there's the thing that bothers me: the characters. You CANNOT magically resurrect characters. Canonically (I think this is the right word), the only way such a thing could happen is if Nico brought them back as ghosts, but for some reason I don't think Silena and Beckandorf would do that? And who would be playing? Percy, yes. Jason would probably be talked into it by Piper. Piper would do it knowing she could charmspeak her way out of answering anything bad. Leo would be all for it. So would Connor and Travis, Drew, Katie (if you really want to do tratie), POSSIBLY Rachel etc. They may be fighting monsters, but they're still children at a summer camp! You could possibly get away with Hazel joining in, simply because she didn't have a lot of friends growing up and would want to see what truth or dare is, and Frank would then take part for Hazel.

Annabeth, Nico and Reyna are a BIG no. There's no doubt that Hazel and Jason would TRY to make Nico do it, but he's the fricking Ghost King. He's not going to sit around and play spin the bottle! Same goes for Annabeth and Reyna, who aren't AS antisocial, but certainly have better things to do.

I mean, Reyna has a whole camp to run! She would call truth or dare immature and a waste of time. Annabeth, in my opinion, wouldn't touch the game! No child of Athena would! In MOA Annabeth literally blows of the 'love of her life' to study up on things, I can't picture her joining in on such a game when she could be planning the strategy for the next capture the flag game!

Just, don't do it as a standalone. All the jokes fall flat and it gets boring easily. Also, don't start with a truth or dare fic and turn it into something completely different, unless you have stated you will in the description. So yeah, use it carefully as a plot device (but keep in character, think about who would do what dares) but not a standalone.

_NB: This goes for karaoke fics as well. Copying and pasting lyrics and adding a sentence about feeling kinda sucks, though I have nothing against a singing scene, if in character. Just say "and then he sand (insert song here)"._

* * *

**Reading the books with the gods**

* * *

This one will be shorter, considering this seems to have died down. Yeah, okay, these can be quite well written and in character. The snarky remarks for the characters are, well, moderately entertaining. However, and this goes for songfics too, if your original writing is less words than what you've taken, it's kind of a dick move. I mean, Rick Riordan deserves to sell his books, you're putting them up for free.

Not only that, but there's limited originality there. It's a pointless feat and honestly a waste of time.

* * *

**The dreaded high school AU**

* * *

I will touch more on this in my AU/AR section, but this is one of the most overdone fanfictions on the website. Usually percabeth, or you shipping yourself with Percy, generally the story is the same each time. Don't get me wrong, I hate ALL high school stories unless they have a bigger plot. It's just... boring.

* * *

**Which brings us on to...**

The daughter of Poseidon/Hades/Apollo/Kronos/Atlas/Artemis (AKA the Mary Sue)


	4. Mary Sues (OC)

**Chapter four: The daughter of Poseidon/Hades/Apollo/Kronos/Atlas/Artemis (AKA the Mary Sue) **

Guys, I'm done. Ten out of ten, the best characters ever in fanfiction are these. Amazing skills and writing here. Fabulous originality.

Let's meet the wonderful character that is Pearl Ocean Tide Aqua Jackson, the long lost daughter of Poseidon who for some reason shares Percy's last name. Her story is one of the least flawed things I've seen on . Seriously. Who in Taratrus could have guessed that such a normal, beautiful girl with many friends and perfect grades would be the daughter of Poseidon who 'died'? And found by Leo/Nico/Some other random OC! It was seen in the stars! And then her fantastic superpowers which make her unbeatable for no reason! That bit when she got a prophecy (more on that later), gods that was well done! I couldn't have guessed that Pearl here would fall in love and have the perfect boyfriend in Leo/Nico/OC. But holy shit, the sequel is their children?! I CAN'T WAIT!

So there's no way you can't tell that was me being sarcastic. This, mis amigos, is how to write an OC.

* * *

**Mary Sue**

* * *

Ah, good old Mary Sue! For those who don't know, since I barely explained it, the term Mary Sue comes from a Star Trek fanfiction originally (I believe) where there was a perfect character called Mary Sue and all the characters fell in love with her.

The most well known, undisputed examples of a Mary Sue are *pukes typing her name* Bella Swan from Twilight and Ebony (Enoby) from an infamous Harry Potter fanfiction called 'My Immortal'. Other accused Sues are: Ginny Weasley, Katniss Everdeen, Annabeth Chase (and I will back this up when I get to it) etc. So basically, the main character or the main character's love interest.

But what defines a Sue?

**Name **– In terms of Percy Jackson, a common theme is to name your OC after the godly parent. For example, a child of Apollo might be called Ray, a child of Demeter might be called Demeter. I'm not trying to be sexist, it's just that most of these are female. Just don't do this, it's not poetic it's just stupid. Use subtle symbolism like Rick Riordan does, like Piper's name (The Pied Piper anyone? Charmspeak?) Also, avoid middle name usage. There's a reasons it's not included in the books! A very common thing is to have multiple, non-name middle names. That worked in the Hunger Games, it doesn't work here. Note also to not give your characters wish washy names, like Isabella Swan (seriously Meyer? Beautiful swan?)

**Appearance** – I think most of anyone can relate to this: it's pretty damn impossible to look flawless, it's hard to look decent on a good day! So why, then, are OCs stunningly beautiful. Annabeth has no need to be described as beautiful, she just IS for the sake of it. That's just a thing, which I can't respect. It is, however, okay to describe the Aphrodite kids as beautiful. As a quick character case of that cabin, they're either beautiful on the outside or on the inside, but some like Piper are both. THAT is fine, within reason. But even they are not flawless!

Usually, a Sue is 'skinny enough to be anorexic', but still curvy in all the right places. Her skin is flawless. She is practically a goddess.

Just, make your characters believable.

**Everybody likes them **– A Sue automatically has friends, no matter what they do. Even the villains tend to be attracted to them. The main love interest's life revolves around them, it was love at first sight.

This is what tends to be the downfall of characters. Please, name me one person you know who gets on with literally everyone in the world. Some people just don't! If someone does dislike your character, make it for a good reason, not just because they can!

**Flaws **– Flaws? What flaws? What aren't flaws: clumsiness, not bothering with appearance, being nerdy, being quiet (but not antisocial). I wouldn't even say that being shy is a flaw.

EVERYBODY has bad qualities. Personally, I'm very short tempered at times, a bit overly dramatic and I find myself lying a lot. Amongst others, but those are examples of real, human flaws. People are not perfect!

The danger with this is if you write yourself as the main character. You don't write you, you write dream you!

**Consequences **– Although having no flaws is a major factor of being a Mary Sue, some Sues have had a few legit flaws. They don't, however, face consequences for doing anything bad. They cheat on someone, then they're automatically forgiven. Bitchy? Forgiven. Make a fatal mistake? Ha, something saves them!

**Chosen one** – One of the biggest sins of all, and why I consider Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and similar characters to be slight Gary Stus (Percy more so). Every single freaking time an OC ends up getting a prophecy, or being the saviour of the world. JUST DON'T USE IT AS A PLOT DEVICE.

If you want more information on Mary Sues, google the litmus test.

* * *

Look, I don't like OC centric stories at all. I don't know why that is to be honest, but I DO know it can be done very well if you put the effort into making it so. Just don't make them the love interest of Percy, Nico or Leo. Or if you do, stick to the golden rule and keep them in character.

OCs can be very effective, and even in small roles make sure to do them right,


End file.
